I have a home in Northern Michigan on Lake Huron – the wind comes off the lake from the Northeast, where there is 120 miles of open water. Needless to say, the wind is cold, and when it’s raining or snowing, it’s really miserable. My home is built with vented soffits everywhere. The home is a Cape Cod with finshed 2nd floors. Some of the ducting for the HVAC runs behind the kneewalls in the 2nd level, and given the vented soffit, these spaces are cold. My question is, why vented soffit? The soffit space does not intersect with the roof space as the roof is SIP panels or fully insulated. Is there any reason I need to keep vented soffit? I would like to open these spaces up, spray foam them, and re-install non-vented soffit. Thanks.
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If you seal the vents, insulate the outter surfaces that aren't already insulated, and then make the knee area part of "conditioned space" then the vents are unneeded.